#Summary
Create a community currency backed in organic waste to reuse and give value to those inputs that our society considers as ‘waste’. The project has two main objectives: to foster bio-waste to be introduced as a public policy and to use bio-waste as an organic fertilizer to save carbon footprint emissions. It also foresees to write a DIWO handbook for issuing a complementary currency based on agro-composting techniques to scale and transfer it into a public policy at local level.
#Introduction
In Spain and other European countries we have a challenger linked with the UE sustainable objectives of the circular economy: to value the organic waste. The aim of our proposal is to implement and experiment ways to give value to the organic waste in a different organic manner, in contrast to what local authorities are currently doing.
We have already run a 5 month pioneering pilot with Madrid Local Council: Madrid Agrocomposta. The network of the pilot was composed by 4 small startup organic farmers as agro-composters managing the organic waste of 4 public schools, 15 vegetable stalls of 2 municipal markets and 200 homes. The results have been impressive, with a global amount of 17,5 tonnes with a very low waste improper (0,2%) and a very small budget.
This proposal of our idea includes:
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A DIWO handbook to replicate the model. Recommendations for agro-composting techniques to small agro-ecological farmers and Municipalities, as well as notions for transferring and scale our prototype.
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Instructions for the implementation of a complementary currency for paying-buying the bio-
waste to household in a week farmers markets in Madrid. One ‘organic currency’ is equivalent to 5 kg of organic waste, which is equivalent to 1 euro. The organic currency would be accepted as a discount currency in the local market stalls where startup ecological farmers are represented.
The idea is a waste-currency according to the value of the bio-wastes as public policy and spending + organic fertilizer. In both cases the issuing of the currency could contribute to save public money, private taxes, reduce the use of fertilizers and carbon footprint emissions, as well as promote the small farmers.